Artborne Magazine June 2017 | Page 14

spotlight You Can Only Control What You Can Control scott white by Rob Goldman above: untitled, spray paint, acrylic and marker on wood below: Forever Sad Boy, spray paint, acrylic, marker, and charcoal on wood The fi ve minutes spent waiting outside of Ethos for Scott White’s ar- rival felt much longer in the Florida summer heat. We met to walk around inside and see his work on the walls, but we had to navigate around people eating, so conditions weren’t ideal for an interview. The whole place shows local artists, and White’s work dominates a good chunk of the wall space. We had a brief tour of the artwork, then decided to go to Rise Above. The shop had customers, and the back room was occupied, so we fi nally went across street to Lil Indies, which is always a nice place for conversation. White is a professional tattoo artist, painter, and musician. You can see his work on the fl esh of many happy Orlandoans, or on Instagram @ largeteeth. Starting off, I had to ask, “Why lar- geteeth?” Everything else was taken; he and three friends brainstormed to get an easy-to-re- member, open-ended name. Essentially, it’s just White now, but it was initially meant to be a collaborative project. He elaborated on his passion for collaborative work: he thrives on the satisfaction of completing someone else’s work, and also the same satisfaction in seeing how another person interprets his unfi nished works. Rise Above is located in the Mills50 district of Orlando. I asked White about his favorite spot, and he said it’s the whole district. “It’s got its 13 own identity at this point, no longer the street that connects areas.” He has no particular “hangout” place to go as he doesn’t drink much, and has an eight-year-old daughter he spends a lot of time with. White’s work is reminiscent of street art, but he hasn’t done any walls since 1994 or ’95. Despite this, that infl uence and love has carried through to his work in recent years. He also really enjoys folk art, so his work tends to look like a stylistically layered mash-up. Back in the mid-’90s in Apopka, there was a budding street art scene but a police crackdown on graffi ti resulted in some people serv- ing jail time. That was an easy segue into working in and hanging around tattoo shops. Coincidentally, a graffi ti artist from the music scene was the one to introduce him to the opportunity to meet tattoo artists. Between making a point, asking a question, and talking about himself, White said that he would rather not think about what the piece is meant to do from the get-go and just go for it. Typically he starts with no idea or basis. “At this point, I’m all about just being positive. Hopefully it makes people happy. It makes me happy. That’s what I want to share.” Most pieces are in the works for a couple years. Scott goes through phases. He’ll only have the en- ergy to focus on tattoo work, then occasionally, his www. ARTBORNEMAGAZINE.com